This document discusses WordPress SEO best practices. It recommends immediately configuring WordPress settings after installation, activating helpful plugins, and creating keyword-themed content with optimized titles, headings, descriptions and links to improve rankings. It also covers more advanced strategies like offering quizzes and widgets to attract links from other sites. The author, Steve Wiideman, is an SEO consultant who shares tips through his training site and is available for contact.

1. WordPress SEO
+Creating Content Google Loves
Steve Wiideman
www.ThatTrainingGuide.com

2. Three Principles of SEO
What is SEO, in Plain English?
1. Having content to match search terms
2. Other websites referencing a target
website
3. User behavior (“click and stay”)

3. WordPress Configurations
Immediately After Your WordPress Installation:
 Settings > General > add the www prefix ONLY IF not on a subdomain
 Settings > Permalinks > short and sweet /%postname%/
 For news inclusion, add the date or a numeric value
 Settings > Writing > select other configurations + add Ping list
 Activate Akismet plugin, it comes with the default installation

4. WordPress SEO Plugins
These Can Make the Website “Search Engine Friendly”:
 CodeGuard
 WordPress SEO by Yoast
 KB RobotsTXT
 Dagon Sitemap Generator
 W3 Total Cache
 A social sharing feature of your choice
 [Optional] Disqus comment system
 Google Analytics for WordPress

5. What Makes a Page “Awesome”?

10. Video Intermission

11. Create Keyword-Themed Content
Compare a Thesis Paper to Your Awesome Web Content:
 Heading and Title = HTML Title & One H1 Heading
 Tables and Illustrations = Lower Bounce Rate & Content Uniqueness
 Thesis Statement = Meta Description
 Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation = See Page 15 of the GSG
 Bibliography > Evaluating Sources for Authorship & Authority = Links
 Plagiarism = Duplicate Content
 Language and Style = Geographic Targeting by Primary Language

12. Titles & Descriptions
You Only Get One Chance to Make a First Impression
Get All the SEO Secrets to Rank Well in Google Here
Download over 50 marketing tips and SEO secrets to help you get your
website to the top of the search engines without spending money.
www.SomeSEOSite.com/seo-secrets.html
But J.C. Penny got
away with it!
SEO Secrets
Our title sucks, please don’t click here ever. Yes, this is the
same description we used everywhere. Seo secrets, seo
secrets, seo secrets, stuff, stuff, stuff, you ugly searcher.
www.Spamalot.com/seo-secrets.html

13. Titles & Descriptions
You Only Get One Chance to Make a First Impression
Get All the SEO Secrets to Rank Well in Google Here
Download over 50 marketing tips and SEO secrets to help you get your
website to the top of the search engines without spending money.
www.SomeSEOSite.com/seo-secrets.html
Call-to-Action + Keyword Theme + Value Proposition
Different call-to-action + same keyword theme + re-written value
proposition or different value proposition.
www.yoursite.com/your-keyword-theme.html

14. Headings & Subheadings
How Many Main Topics Do You Have Anyway?
 Fact: Web Designers put heading tags around logos to drive SEO
experts bonkers
 Fact: You only need ONE h1 tag per
page and it should definitely include
your keyword theme
 Myth: Dropping H1’s all over your page
like Navy Seals in Abbottabad will help
your ranking. NO, please don’t do this.

15. Headings & Subheadings
Think STRUCTURE
<h1>Keyword Phrase Here</h1>
<p>Your attention grabbing thesis here, with tags around one instance of the <strong>keyword</strong>.
Supportive topic 1, and supportive topic 2. Tell them what you’re going to tell them.</p>
<img src=”images/keyword-one.jpg” alt=”Image of Keyword One and Description” />
<h2>Supportive Topic 1</h2>
<div id=”video”><object>Some awesome video tagged with descriptive keywords </object></div>
<h2>Supportive Topic 2</h2>
<p>A summary of how and why supportive topic 2 exists and possibly a keyword-rich link to a page dedicated
specifically to the supportive topic.</p>

16. Answer “Yes” to 5 Important Questions
1. Is there an easy way for people to share it?
2. Is it more useful and relevant than alternatives?
3. Is there enough awesome info to keep them here?
4. Is it always easy to find “buy” or “contact” buttons?
5. Will they want to link, share, Like, bookmark, Tweet?

17. Get a Second Opinion
Quality Assurance is Everything
1. Seek Moonlighting English Majors
2. Use Mechanical Turk Workers
3. Send Out a Survey
4. Spell-Check in Word
5. Use Elance, oDesk, Freelancer
6. Hit up Your Facebook Friends
7. Send a Few DM’s in Twitter

18. Advanced Link Baiting Strategies

19. Link What?
Why is building links important to achieving higher
ranking in the search results?
Relevancy + Popularity + User Choice
= Higher Ranking

20. Building vs. Baiting
What is the difference between link building and
link baiting, and which one is better?

21. 4 Powerful Link Baiting Strategies
1. Offer Quiz and Certification Badges
2. Widgets and Embeddable Objects
3. Frequently Updated Survey Results
4. Be a Source for Industry Data
Off-Page Link Building

22. #1: Offer Quiz and Certification Badges
Sample Use Cases (3/15/11):
1,205,644 links to the root domain,
44,270,380 links to subpages
48,392 links to the root domain,
86,655 links to subpages
869 links to the root domain,
5,495 links to subpages

23. #2: Widgets and Embeds
Use Cases for Widgets & Embeds
Sentence Link Goes Here
Sentence Link Goes Here

24. #3: Frequently Updated Survey Results
Use Cases for Survey Results:
– Census.gov (597,232 root, 2,407,657 total)
– DavidMihm.com (4,410 links to ‘Ranking Factors’)
– BeatTheAutocomplete.com (New Site)

25. #4: Be THE Source for Industry News
Authoritative Content
• SearchEngineJournal.com (150,811 root, 326,108 total)
• WSJ.com (1,231,513 root, 1,782,454 total)
• PizzaMarketplace.com (76,405 root, 80,651 total)
• ModernWoodworking.com (400 root, 573 total)
Anyone can become an authority on what they specialize in or
what people they know specialize in.

26. Questions?

27. Connect with Steve Wiideman
Wiideman has been working with Search Engine Optimization Since 2003
and authored several eBooks on the topic while working with
Fortune 100 & 500 organizations.
He has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Response Magazine,
National Journal, Visibility Magazine and many industry blogs,
including the Marketing Sherpa Blog.
He is currently a consultant to several corporate brands. In 2011,
Wiideman is working with his team on That Training Guide, an
Internet Marketing private membership site.
Sign up free for 14 days at http://www.thattrainingguide.com/
Steve Wiideman
www.SEOSteve.com
Facebook.com/stevewiideman
P. (562) 732-4417 @seosteve
E. info@seosteve.com